Guillermo del Toro Was Offered Star Wars Episode VII, But Turned It Down

We don't yet know just how much progress has been made on Star Wars Episode 7. Since the bombshell announcement last October that Disney had bought Lucasfilm and was planning three more Star Wars films, the only concrete news we've gotten is that Toy Story 3 writer Michael Arndt would handle the screenplay. Assuming Arndt is still neck-deep in Star Wars lore as he put the screenplay together, it makes sense that they haven't moved on to casting or hiring a director yet.

But just because nothing has officially happened doesn't mean there aren't a lot of moving pieces behind the scenes, and now we know that at least one high-profile director got a phone call asking about his interest… only to turn it down. Speaking to The Playlist, Guillermo del Toro said that his agent received a phone call asking if he would be interested in the project, but the perpetually-busy del Toro apparently didn't hesitate before turning it down: "It was very flattering. It was just a phone call, it didn't go past that, it was very nice to be asked, but believe it or not, I'm busy enough."

In all the feverish speculation that followed the big announcement last fall, del Toro was one of the names that frequently came up among Star Wars fans as someone who would be an ideal director, though most also seemed to recognize that del Toro was generally too busy to give something that huge a shot. For his own part, del Toro wants to see someone make it who has also turned it down: "As a geek, I would have loved to see Brad Bird take it." We're right there with you Guillermo.